Nomura Known as 'Demon King of Retakes' During Final Fantasy 7 Dev

Considered one of the best games ever made, 1997's seminal Final Fantasy VII wouldn't be nearly the legendary title it's considered today if not for the exacting standards of director Tetsuya Nomura. Nomura even earned himself the sobriquet "Demon King of retakes" during development, so notorious was he for making developers start their work over from scratch.

Over on Shmuplations, a compilation of interviews from the launch back in '97 has been republished, with a number of the original creators discussing the challenges they faced when developing the legendary RPG (thanks, GamesRadar+). Programmer Ken Narita revealed the undeniably cool-sounding moniker, recalling: "Nomura was the Demon King of retakes. He was always making the designers re-do things. 'Nope, that's wrong there.'"

Background designer Kenzo Kanzaki added that this perfectionism perhaps allowed Final Fantasy VII to reach the lofty heights it did: "It's really thanks to him that we achieved very realistic motion." Nomura himself freely confirms this reputation, recalling that back in the day: "I stuck my nose into everyone's work there".